Belt buckle



Aug. 28, 1956 E. M. HAWIE BELT BUCKLE Filed Feb. 27, 1955 INVENTOR United States Patent BELT BUCKLE Ed a d Hawie, stratford, Conm, assignor to The Hawie f c u n C pany, Bridgep rt, Conn.u a corporation of Connecticut Application February 27, 1953, Serial No. 339,282

1 Claim- (Cl. 249 75) This invention relates to belt clasps or buckles, and more particularly to a device of this character adapted for use with ladies belts.

Ordinarily when a buckle or clasp is employed with a belt it consists of two members, one, secured to each end edge of the belt, the members being provided with cooperating engageable means which are secured together when the belt is worn. Each of these members, therefore, is provided with some means by which it may be secured to the edge of the belt.

It is usual to provide such clasp members which are of the same dimension in width as the width of the belt in order that they may present a neat appearance as it is ordinarily not practical to secure a narrow clasp member to a wide belt or vice versa. Moreover, as the clasp or belt buckles are normally permanently secured to the belts, it is necessary to have a separate memberfor each belt, and if the belts are not of'the same width, these members cannot be interchanged as the clasp which is suitable in width for one beltv would not be suitable for a belt of another width.

It is contemplated by the present invention to provide a belt buckle or clasp which maybe readily attached to, or detached from, the end edges of a belt and which are of such a size that aplurality of these clasp members may be employed at the edge ofthe belt depending upon the width thereof. If the belt is wide, for example, as many of the clasp members may be employed as are thought necessary to make a satisfactory appearance and to hold the edges of the belt neatly together. As the clasp members may be readily detached from the belt, it is only necessary to have a suflicient number for a single belt, and these can be interchanged or detached from one belt and applied to another as desired depending upon which belt the wearer wishes to use.

It has been proposed to provide clasp members of this character which comprise two permanently connected parts, each of the parts being provided with an outwardly opening clasp member to receive the end edge of the belt and the inner edges of the parts being secured together. With such a construction, however, the clasp members must be clamped upon the edges of the belt after it is put on, for at least the clamping members or jaws at one edge cannot be secured to the belt before it is put on. It is, therefore, contemplated by the present invention to provide clasp members of this character which consist of two clamp members, each adapted to be secured to the end edge of the belt, the clamp members being provided with cooperating elements by which they may be readily connected together or one detached from the other. With this construction the two parts of each of the clasp members may be secured to the edge of the belt in the desired position, and the parts then may be hooked or attached together after the belt has been put on.

One object of the present invention is to provide an improved belt buckle or clasp comprising a pair of clamp or clasp members, each of which is provided with co- 2,760,246 Patented Aug. 28., 1956 operating openable jaws which are adapted to face in opposite directions so that the remote ends of the two members may be secured to the end edges of the belt, and the adjacent ends or edges of the two membersare' provided with cooperating means by which the two members may be readily attached and detached.

A still further object of the. invention is to provide a belt buckle or clasp which comprises a plurality of separate pairs of clasp members, each of the clasp members having a pair of jaws openabl'e to receive the edge of the belt, the jaws being provided at. the outer edges of the two members, and the adjacent edges of the two members of a pair being provided with complemental hooks and eyes or like attaching means for detachably securing one of the clasp members of a pair to the other.

To these and other ends. the invention consists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a belt having my improved buckles or clasps applied thereto;

Fig, 2 is an enlarged view of one of the buckles showing one of the clasp members with its jaws in open position and one with its jaws in closed position;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the hook member attached to one of the clasp members;

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the eye member attached to the other clasp member;

Fig. 6 is a viewof the lever member for opening the jaws of the clamp member; and

Fig. 7 is a view of what may be termed the movable jaw of the clamp member.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I have shown a ladies belt 10 provided with adjacent free edges 11 and 12 to which may be applied my improved buckle orclasp, as hereinafter described.

As shown, three. of the clasp members are applied to the belt, these being alike so that the description of one will suflice for all. As will be seen in the drawings, each of the clasps comprises a pair of clamping members designated generally-by the. numerals 13 and 14, and these clampingmembers are alike except for the securing means at the adjacent edges thereof, as will be hereinafter described.

As shown more especially in Fig. 3, each of the clamping members comprises what may be called the stationary jaw 15 and a movable jaw 16, these jaws being provided with inwardly turned ends 17 and 18 designed to be clamped upon the edge of the belt to secure the clamp member thereto.

The stationary jaw 15 of the clamp member is provided with a flange 19 at its inner edge and with a pair of edge lugs or cars 20 at each side thereof adjacent the inner edge. The flange 19 is provided with an opening 21 and the movable jaw 16, as shown in Fig. 7, is provided with inwardly extending tongues 22 adapted to be received in this opening.

The ears 20 are provided with openings 23 adapted to receive lugs 24 at each side edge of a flange 25 formed at the inner edge of a lever member 26, which lever forms the front surface of the clamping member and may carry an ornamental design if desired. The lever is thus hinged to the ears 20 to swing about the openings 23, and the free edge of the flange 25 is adapted to bear against the upper surface of the jaw 16 to move it into clamping relation with the jaw 15. Projecting from the edge of the flange 25 is a lug 27 adapted to be received in a slot 28 formed in the jaw 16 so as to maintain the parts in proper relation to each other.

Secured to the clamp member 13 just described is a book of the form shown more particularly in Fig. 4, this are provided with inwardly ofiset portions 33 and 34 to provide relatively closely spaced end portions 35'and 36.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the hook member is assembled with the clamp so that the leg portions 31 lie upon each side of the flange 19 and the offset portions 33 and 34 position the extending leg ends 35 and 36 between the ears' 20 of the lower clasp'member and below the movable jaw 16 so that this hook member will be effectively locked in place.

The cooperating clamp member '14 at the other edge 12 of the belt also comprises fixed and movable jaws 15 and 16 and a lever 26, all formed exactly as those described in connection with the clamp member 13. In this instance, however, instead of providing a hook upon the inner edge of the clamp member, there is provided the eye or loop member shown in Fig. 5. This member is also made from a single length of stock and comprises a loop or eye member 37 having outwardly pro jecting legs or ends 38 and 39, these members being displaced inwardly from the outer edges of the loop member 37. In assembling the parts of the clasp member 14, this member is so positioned that it embraces the flange member 19 and the legs 38 and 39 lie adjacent the inner surfaces of the ears 20 so as to be clamped upon the stationary jaw 15 by the movable jaw 16 to secure the eye thereto in a manner similar to that described in connection with the hook shown in Fig. 4.

When the parts are assembled they provide, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, for example, a pair of clamp members which may be readily attached to, and detached from, each other by the cooperating hook and eye elements, each of these members being provided with outwardly opening jaws designed to be clamped upon the edge of a piece of material. In using them they may be arranged in pairs upon a belt, as shown in Fig. 1, each clamp member of a pair being secured to the opposite edges of the belt in registering relation and as many pairs of the clamp members may be employed as desired according to the width of the member and the width of the belt with which they are used. It will, of course, be understood that the two clamp members of a pair will be detached before being secured to the belt so that each may be secured to the beltseparately, and, after the belt is put on, the two clamp members of a pair may 'the'n' besecured together by the complemental hooks and eyes secured to the adjacent or inner edges thereof.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that it is not to be limited to all of the details shown, but is capable of modification and variation within the spirit of the invention and withinthe scope of the claim.

What I claim is:

A belt buckle comprising a pair of clamp members, each clamp member having a stationary jaw and a movable jaw, the stationary jaw having at one end thereof an upstanding flange with which the movable jaw is hingedly engaged and a pair of upstanding lugs at its side edges adjacent-said flange and a lever pivoted to said ears and engaged with said movabe jaw to move it toward the stationary jaw, each of said jaws having a turned end adapted to be clamped upon the edge of a belt received therebetween, one of said members having an eye secured thereto adjacent said flange with the eye projecting from the clamp member, and the other of said clamping members having a cooperating hook secured thereto adjacent the flange thereon and projecting from the clamp member to engage said eye for attaching the members together, and said hook comprising a member made of a single length of material having a pair of spaced leg portions, and a hook portion bent downwardly and offset from the leg portions, and said leg portions straddling said flange and being'in'wardly displaced to provide relatively closely spaced projecting end portions lying behind the flange and between the jaws of the clamp member adjacent the hinged ends of the jaws so as to be clamped therebetween when the movable jaw is moved into clamping relation with the other jaw by said lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 362,601 Bretzfield May 10, 1887 438,130 Knapp Oct. 7, 1890 880,319 Megrue Feb. 25, 1908 890,080 Miller June 9, 1908 1,343,623 Graske June 15, 1920 1,569,088 Humphrey Jan. 12, 1926 2,148,534 Cohan Feb. 28, 1939 

